Month: February 2018

Want to save bucks on your subscription to Motorcyclist? All you gotta do is toss the blow-in subscription card that fell into your lap (and lists a $19.97 price) and read the small print. The small print at the back of the mag (page 98 in the March/April 2018 issue) lists the subscription at $18. But wait, there’s more! You can go online and get the sub for $14.97 (that’s a 25% savings or a cool $5). Guess Motorcyclist is hoping you’re too busy or lazy to look this close,…

Late ’60’s Harleys are boss! This one is no exception. The solo saddle, speedo on the tank, floorboard footpeds, bull-horn handlebar, additional driving lights, triple-clamp aluminum casing and fish-tail pipes all add up to one sweet boulevard cruiser. Still, this guy will require hours and hours of attention unless you plan to take the rat-bike path. Even then, it is a “running when parked” so who knows what evil lurks inside the fuel tank, engine cases and battery cover? All this and the owner is asking $13,000 for a bike…

The modern-day Ducati Scrambler just doesn’t do it for me. Motorcycle magazines gush over it but to my eye, it is a poorly constructed poser bike that is too porky to ride on anything but pavement or dirt roads you’d tackle in a 1984 Ford Country Squire. To find a Ducati Scrambler that gets my attention, you need to turn back the clock to 1971 and throw a leg over the Ducati 450 RT. Now that’s a scrambler! This ad was selling two of them (both “running when parked”). The…

Bike Europe, a publication claimed to be the “leading trade journal for the bicycle, e-bike market” recently published a courageous story on the dangers of Lithium-Ion batteries used in the majority of electric bikes (e-bikes). The publication had a fire safety engineer and battery safety professional examine the aftermath of a fire ignited by an unattended charging battery in a bicycle shop (click here to watch the ignition and blast-off). His observations are frightening. The expert is quoted as saying that Lithium-Ion batteries are, “rather unreliable, rather explosive. You are…

Ventura California, Sunday, February 4, 2018: The gates to the 14th annual David Mann Chopperfest were supposed to open on December 10th, 2017. Problem was, the Ventura County Fairgrounds were full of Thomas Fire evacuees and first responders. The event’s promoters got the word out that everyone had an extra two months to get their choppers ready for the show. They moved the event to the first weekend in February and with the weather cooperating, it felt more like June! Does that mean if the promoters move the event back…